We are taking a look at the unique features of the Snow Peak Mola headlamp. And the standout feature of this lamp is Snow Peak’s optic motility technology, which basically follows the sight line of your eyes. So as you look down, the light on the inside of the lamp is going to tilt down more drastically than a normal headlamp would. Same thing when you look up. So basically it acts like your eyes. When you tilt your head down, you don’t tilt your head down all the way. Basically you tilt your head a little bit and your eyes do the rest. That is what is happening with his headlamp as well. But other than that, it is a really light weight headlamp that is going to work really well if you are back packing, hiking and you want, you know, a light weight lamp that has got some really interesting technology.
Another benefit to the optic motility technology in this lamp is that it cuts down on having a bulky pivot point, a bulky adjustment point on your headlamp. So if you take a look at a profile here it is a very sleek, very lightweight and there is not a whole lot of moving parts so it cuts down on something that could possibly be, you know, a defect or something that could break on the headlamp.
As opposed to a pivoting headlamp, let’s say you want to look down at your map. You look down and then you have to use one of your hands to adjust the pivot point so it is looking exactly where you want it to look. With this technology you don’t have to... you know, take your hand off your trekking pole or bring your trekking pole up to your headlamp. The same way for climbing or something like that. You don’t have to take your hand off of whatever you are doing. So hands free technology there.
And I do want to mention that it is... you can fix the lamp on one spot so it doesn’t always have to be moving around. There is a little knob here on the side and basically you can position the light there to, you know, aim in whatever direction, kind of vertically that you want. And with a little click you can push that in and lock it into place. Now once that is locked, you can twist that little knob up and down just to lock it into place and to kind of fine tune where you want that adjustment point. So that is a great feature on there.
I do want to mention that the light will only move vertically up and down. It does not move horizontally. So, you know, you can definitely position it to the place where you want vertically, but as you tilt your head side to side it will move with you in that way.
You have basically got three modes. You have high, low and strobe. Now with the high and low settings you have a dimming feature. So with the high setting you can dim it slowly all the way down to its lowest setting and then it will turn off. If you set it on the low setting you have kind of graduated settings and it can actually dim down to 10 lumens. So on high at the highest power you have got up to 110 lumens and on the lowest setting and the lowest dim you can adjust it down to 10 lumens. So you have a wide range of ... you know, if you are hiking and it is really dark and you want to see in the distance, you have that 110 lumens to work with. And then if you are just around camp or you are looking at something within, you know, a pretty small proximity you can dim it down all the way down to 10 lumens. So a lot of adjustability there.
And turning on and off, basically, you have one button that is right on the top. It is super easy to use. And to turn it on, basically, you hold in the button until you see it blink and then you release the button. So the first setting is the highest setting. You know, this... right now with full battery it is blasting out 110 lumens. If I want to dim that down from the on position, all I have to do is hold in the on/off button until I reach the desired, you know, brightness of the headlamp. And once it gets all the way down to the lowest setting it will turn off. To get to the low setting you have to cycle through the high setting first. Same thing with the strobe. So you have the high, low and the strobe. And to get to each one of those you do have to cycle through. So I am going to put it on the low setting now. I am cycling through the high setting first. So first thing I do I hold it in until it blinks and release. And then immediately click the button again so it goes to the low setting. Now while you are on the low setting you can dim this as well. Dim it all the way down to 10 lumens, as I mentioned previously. So if I do that, all I need to do is hold in the on/off button until you reach your preferred brightness. And then when it is at the lowest it can be, it will simply turn off.
Now in order to get to the strobe setting you, again, have to cycle through the high and the low setting and get to the strobe. Basically, what I will do is turn it on, get to the next low setting and immediately press the button again to the strobe. And now it is strobing. To turn that off all you have to do is press the button again.
Now I will mention that if you wait too long in between clicking the buttons in between settings it is just going to turn the headlamp off. So you do have to do that right away.
When your battery life is getting low there is a red low battery indicator that turns on and it is right above the main LED light on the headlamp. So once that turns on you know that your batteries are getting low and it is time to change the batteries.
Now there is three triple A batteries that are included with the purchase of the headlamp. And it is really easy to change the batteries. Basically, it is just a click of a button on the bottom of the headlamp and that opens up. They say you are not supposed to extend this battery housing more than 90 degrees or you could potentially break it, so it certainly gives you enough room to take the batteries that are inside out and to replace them. It is really easy to use. There is no tools needed. There is no screws. But I do want to mention that this battery housing is water resistant, but it is certainly not waterproof. So if you are in a really bad rainstorm or if you are paddling or something like that, you know, it is definitely not water tight. So be careful in those situations.
The strap here is really flexible, really soft and it has a wide range of adjustability. So if you are wearing a helmet you can definitely adjust this up to be pretty big and be able to fit it around the helmet. Likewise if you are lashing it somewhere on a backpack or, you know, possibly a sternum strap on your back pack or something like that, you can cinch it down to be pretty small. So wide range there.
And I will mention that the strap does come off pretty easily, not while you are using it, but you can take that strap off if you need to clean it or if you are using the headlamp you want to attach it to something else. So I can see that being a nice light, like I said, to attach somewhere on a backpack or something like that.
But all in all this weighs in right at 2.4 ounces, so it is light weight, it is innovative, really easy to use and budget friendly. It is the perfect addition to your next back country adventure. The Mola Headlamp by Snow Peak.

Unlike other headlamps, the Mola uses Optic Motility technology to allow the light beam to automatically adjust and follow the vertical angle of your eyes as you move your head up and down, which eliminates the need for tilt adjusters on the headlamp. A locking dial on the side of the headlamp's housing controls whether the automatic adjustment functionality is operational or not; you can also lock the beam at a specific angle, as desired.

A powerful LED provides 110 lumens of brightness across approximately 131 feet on the Mola's High setting. A large glove-friendly push button allows you to easily toggle to alternate Low and Strobe settings, or you can also choose the variable dimming option to take the light level down as low as 10 lumens, which greatly prolongs burn time. Powered by two AAA batteries (included), the Mola Headlamp offers up to 80 hours of burn time on the Low setting.

Featuring a strong polycarbonate housing that's water-resistant for use in wet weather, the Mola also has an adjustable, comfortable strap.

The Snow Peak Mola Headlamp is available in your choice of color options.